Try the Windows install disk and try using the recovery option.
If that doesn't work, you could try the following:
If you have another machine available to you, download a Knoppix Linux Live CD image and use it to boot the sick machine. Then you will be able to (hopefully) see the contents of the drive and copy the vital contents accross the network to another machine, where they can be burned to a CD/DVD. Then you can diagnose the suspect HD without concern for the data on it. You could check and see what types of errors the drive is throwing with SMART HD drive monitoring software.
If the HD is mechanically failing, replace the drive. If it's a corrupted file system, reformat and re-install the OS. YOU WILL LOSE ALL DATA be performing this step, so again, backup the data.
You could also remove the drive, put the jumpers in slave mode, and install a new drive as master. install windows on the new master, re-stall the faulty drive as the slave, and see if you data appears.
Run virus scanning on your old data.
Good luck.
> If you have another machine available to you, download a Knoppix Linux Live CD image and use it to boot the sick machine. Then you will be able to (hopefully) see the contents of the drive and copy the vital contents accross the network to another machine, where they can be burned to a CD/DVD.
That is a really great idea! No reason why it wouldn't work, except...he's got to get into the BIOS and set the machine to boot from CD rather than HD or floppy.